Dutch businessman Cor Adriaanse reveals why, five years after buying Adelaide United, he is speaking publicly about plans for the club.
Five years after buying Adelaide United, the club’s main owner is finally getting on the front foot. Confirming for the first time his financial backing of the club – and emphasising that he intends to become an active investor “for the long term” – Dutch businessmen Cor Adriaanse has appointed sports marketing veteran Ned Morris as the club’s new chair.
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Morris will replace Piet van Der Pol, a minority shareholder, executive chair and the current ownership’s face since it took control in 2018.
Now Adriaanse says he has developed a “passion” for the club and wants to help drive its future. He and Morris tell KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies why Adriaanse has stepped out of the shadows, and why they want the fans to be excited.
KU: For years there has been speculation that you owned the club, so why are you only coming forward now?
CA: First of all, I think it’s important to state that as investors, with Piet being our spokesman, it was never about us. It’s always been about the club, the fans – we have the best fans in Australia – and the leadership, the CEO and his leadership team. We were happy to be in the background.
Over the last years, numerous questions about transparency have arisen, which we fully understand – we are investors, we are true people, we have no hidden agendas. And therefore we have decided to come out to be here together now with the new appointment of Ned.
The club is in a good state (but) it’s also important to go back a little bit because you asked about the past and why that secrecy? I would like to thank Piet for his role the last five years, for everything that he’s done here for the club. He’s done an amazing job in the transformation of the club over the last few years, guiding them through a global pandemic.
But you see now after the first season of a league without any constraints, no COVID etc, we see greater development both in the club as well as external factors. We see that in performance: our men’s team is doing very well, our women always have been strong, we see youth coming (through) which Adelaide is known for.
We see a true fantastic football club at the best football stadium in Australia. We see a great future ahead. APL, of course plays a vital role. I think it’s a unique position for Australian football to be in, this new type of setting with huge investment from external parties and with the shareholder role for clubs.
We see of course that the Socceroos performed very well – I was at the World Cup, I saw Craig Goodwin’s goal against France – and we have a Women’s World Cup here. So there are a lot of positive elements with regard to football development in this country, especially South Australia and Adelaide, which we are very happy to further develop and bring to the next stage.
KU: What does that next stage look like for Adelaide?
CA: We are invested in the long term and the sustainable development of the club to ensure that we continue to deliver great performance both on and off the pitch. We remain committed to young, South Australian talent to become exciting (players) and become valuable to the club. The women’s team will benefit from continued investments and we want to build our partner offering for the club.
We are of the opinion that our new chair, a well-experienced Australian native who has worked in numerous (other) opportunities in sports, can with his high energy level support the leadership team and the CEO and bring this club to the next level. We want this club to be one of the best-led clubs in Australia.
KU: Ned, what do you see as your priorities?
NM: In the short term it’s to get around and understand the business. What’s clearly evident from the get-go is that there’s no need to change any of the key personnel at the club, it’s understanding what they’re doing right.
Carl’s obviously doing a great job and he’s very popular in the building. Obviously, he’s got the full backing of the playing group, he’s very popular with the fan base. By the same token, Adrian with the women’s team – they’ve obviously had a challenging year overall, he’s the right person for that group.
My key thing is just to look at everything. My first three months will be focused on just getting to know everyone, understanding the processes, understanding what we’re doing right, and understanding where we can put our arms around and support to ensure that the success is not just this year.
CA: If I may add something to that, I think, in general, the strategy is about becoming bigger, better, stronger in the future. It (sounds) very, very simple but in order to do that, you have to know first of all, what are we doing? How are we doing? Where can we support into the group, into the team, into the leader, whether we require further investment, (making sure) everything done on a certain plan will work for the future.
That’s the growth we would like, we would definitely want to increase the revenue stream. Because that means we can speculate in order to grow. APL wants to grow the league and I think Australia is in a good momentum now with regard to football. I think with Ned on our side here joining the team, we can add value to the club and make it more sustainable, ensure that we will grow accordingly.
KU: Would you look to extend Carl Veart’s contract?
CA: I think there’s positive conversations going on. But now that’s up for Nathan (Kosmina) to comment on as he is the CEO of the club.
KU: The first thing the fans will ask is, Does this mean there’s more investment coming?
CA: Investment at the right elements and regarding certain strategic matters, which will ensure the development of the club both on and off the pitch. Yes, we are invested. Yes, we are willing to invest. But there should be common sense. Nobody wants to drill down money through the pit. We are here to build a sustainable club, both on and off the pitch.
I can’t stress that enough. That will lead into a variety of strategies where the leadership team, together with a new chair will have time to look at where are the strengths, where are the weaknesses, but also where opportunities are for us to grow, then come up with a plan to execute. Again, as investors I would like to stress we are in (for) the long term. There is no short term view on potentially selling the club whatsoever. We believe in the APL plan to further grow the league… it’s going to be an interesting ride.
KU: Why were you in talks to sell the club then? What changed?
CA: As investors we have never put the club up for sale. In 2021, we were approached, or our chair at the time was approached. And during a global pandemic with all businesses being shut, we looked at that opportunity to see if that would fit or would be appropriate for the club. We walked away from it because we are happy with the development both on and off the pitch and have decided to continue our already five-year investment in this club on a long-term basis.
KU: What is the business model? Are you a club that will look to develop young players and sell them? Are there greater commercial opportunities within the city of Adelaide that haven’t yet been taken advantage of?
CA: For this moment, I don’t want to jump into conclusions, because Ned’s appointment is to look at every facet of the club, see opportunities to grow, make our club and our management team stronger and better. And we will accommodate that, we will assist them in their growth models. So we don’t know yet in which areas that will be, but we have been developing youth and talent. I think SA is well known for youth development. We’ve had four South Australian people in the Socceroos squad last week, three of them play for Adelaide. And that is something we are very proud of.
NM: One of the key things that we want to focus on is to have complete stability around the head people in the organization. And then we’ll definitely continue to look at the best way to bring through young South Australian talent and give them a pathway to playing top tier football with both men’s and women’s. But it’s not just something that we’re looking at as a revenue generator, we’ve got so much talent here on our doorstep, we want to make sure that the avenue is there for them to play for the club first and foremost. If they ended up being valuable elsewhere, then that’s that’s something that we’ll come to as well.
KU: What’s your football background Cor? Do you support a football team in Holland?
My background is I’ve been running FMCG companies across the globe. I’m a big fan of football all my life, I’ve played on an amateur level and I support both PSV Eindhoven and FC Eindhoven – the teams in my city.
I’m passionate about sports, passionate about global football, and I’ve always had a passion for Australia and for the sports mentality that they have here. I think there’s always been good relations between Netherlands and Australia as well, we get along quite well.
I really have a passion for this club as well. It is a club with a proper football stadium, great fan base, fantastic city and country to be in… I’m excited about future developments in not only the league but clubs and football in general.
You see the momentum that the Socceroos now have created with their performance in Qatar… I think the vibe is there and the momentum is there to accelerate.
